Liverpool head into Christmas as the Premier League's clear title favorite, holding a four-point lead and a game in hand after a thrilling 6-3 victory at Tottenham.

Meanwhile, Manchester United, under new manager Ruben Amorim, limps into the festive season in 13th place – its lowest position at Christmas since the 1989-90 season – facing a growing sense of crisis.

A 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth, marking its second straight loss to the Cherries, is the latest reminder of how far the once-mighty club has fallen, leaving Amorim with a tough task ahead. To make matters worse, it seems Liverpool’s dominance is unstoppable.

Make that 21 games in all competitions without defeat after the Reds' biggest league win of the season, with Mohamed Salah netting two goals to move above Manchester City's Erling Haaland to the top of the scoring charts.

Liverpool has 39 points from 16 games and stretched its lead over second-place Chelsea, which could only draw 0-0 at Everton, to end a five-match winning streak in the league.

Salah now has 15 goals in the Premier League, breaking a tie with Haaland – and will leave London thinking he should have had more.

In an end-to-end contest resembling a basketball match, Liverpool scored more than five goals for the first time this season, with Luis Diaz (two), Alexis Mac Allister, and Dominik Szoboszlai also getting on the scoresheet.

"You can see quality players with top discipline," Tottenham captain Son Heung-min said. "There’s a reason they are top. If you give them a mistake, they punish you."

Tottenham’s injury-hit defense was open at the back, but its attack caused Liverpool’s problems throughout, with James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, and Dominic Solanke all finding the net.

Spurs are another big team in the bottom half, having slipped to 11th place.

The optimism generated by a last-gasp 2-1 derby win at Manchester City last weekend has disappeared for United, which lost 4-3 at Tottenham in the English League Cup quarterfinals on Thursday before being handed a defeat to Bournemouth by the same scoreline as 12 months ago.

"We were a bit nervous, I felt it in the stadium," said Amorim, who has won four and lost four in all competitions since starting his United tenure with a draw at Ipswich on Nov. 24.

Dean Huijsen, Justin Kluivert – from the penalty spot – and Antoine Semenyo scored for Bournemouth, which climbed to fifth place in the standings and has now beaten Man City, Arsenal, Tottenham, and United this season. Indeed, City has dropped to seventh place, an unthinkable unraveling for the winner of the last four Premier League titles.

United left out Marcus Rashford for the third straight match.

At one point during Amorim’s post-match press conference, water appeared to drip slowly from a ceiling light fitting onto reporters sitting in the front row of the Old Trafford media room.

After all the money spent on players – $1.3 billion and counting – and the huge turnover of managers, Chelsea’s American ownership could have seen the club atop the Premier League with a win at Everton – for a couple of hours, at least.

However, a 0-0 draw ended Chelsea’s eight-match winning run in all competitions and gave Liverpool the opportunity to push four points clear.

Nicolas Jackson headed against the post in the first half for Chelsea, while Everton had the clearer chances in the second half.

Everton also held Arsenal 0-0 last weekend.

"Sometimes you have to play a different game, and we are learning to play a different game," Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said. "They (Everton) are one of the best teams in Europe in terms of clean sheets."

Vitor Pereira got off to a great start as Wolverhampton manager, with his new team beating Leicester 3-0 in his first match in charge.

Pereira took charge Thursday as the replacement for Gary O'Neil and immediately ended Wolves’ four-game losing run as Gonçalo Guedes, Rodrigo Gomes, and Matheus Cunha scored first-half goals at King Power Stadium.

Wolves stayed in the relegation zone but moved two points behind Leicester, which is a place above the bottom three. Pereira said, "I believe that we will stay in the Premier League and we will play at a better level than we saw today."

It handed Leicester manager Ruud van Nistelrooy a second straight big loss early in his reign, after a 4-0 defeat at Newcastle last weekend.

Another recently hired Premier League manager, Ivan Juric, began life at Southampton with a 0-0 draw at Fulham.

Juric wasn’t in charge of the team because he doesn’t have a work permit. He sat in the stands for the match instead.